League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
San Francisco, San Mateo County, CA March 2, 2004 Election
	Maad Abu-Ghazalah Answers Questions Candidate for United States Representative; District 12; Democratic Party

Read the answers from all candidates.

Questions & Answers

1. What can be done to ensure that California gets its fair share of federal resources?

California provides the largest Federal tax base and deserves a proportionate re-investment in federal resources. The best way to ensure this is for the California representatives in the House to work together to identify and prioritize the needs in the State and lobby for them accordingly. The State's common needs are the protection of the environment, job protection, education and natural resource distribution.

2. What are your foreign policy priorities for the United States?

We must bring the troops home from Iraq as soon as possible. We should establish a free election in Iraq within 6 months and immediately internationalize the policing of the nation. Our priority should be to use diplomacy over war and abandon the Bush's administration's "pre-emptive" war policy. We need to live within the international community, not to constantly oppose and threaten it.

3. What are your priorities for the federal budget?

We must make balancing the budget a top priority. We cannot continue to spend beyond our means and expect future generations to pay for it. For this reason, I oppose the tax cut implemented by George Bush last year. One of the top areas that could be cut is the construction of weapons of mass destruction. With the fall of the Soviet Union, stockpiling these weapons makes little strategic sense. Our military industrial complex is bankrupting our nation.